The Closer Back for Season 4

Guest Author - Lizzie Flynn

“The Closer”, TNT’s hit drama starring Golden Globe winning Kyra Sedgwick, is returning to television July 14, 2008 for a fourth season. Fans can expect to get to know central character, Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson a little better as many of the stories will delve deeper into her chaotic personal life. New viewers will want to catch up on some past episodes to get a handle on the more personal aspects of the show. Don’t worry, you won’t be disappointed by lack of action and great crime solving.

“The Closer” follows Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson (Sedgwick) as she leads a crack crime-solving team in the Los Angeles Police Department. She’s got all the charm of a Southern belle, but is hard enough to get even the toughest criminal to crack.. She’s also got a way of just skirting the rules so that she’s not breaking the law, but she’s able to break her cases. Even though she’s gone head-to-head with many of her colleagues for the way she’s handled cases, she’s eventually gotten them to come around by showing her stuff.

The show also stars Jon Tenney as FBI agent (and Johnson’s fiancé) Fritz Howard, J.K. Simmons as Assistant Police Chief Will Pope, Corey Reynolds as Sgt. David Gabriel, G.W. Bailey as Detective Lieutenant Provenza, and Tony Denison as Lt. Andy Flynn. This cast of characters makes up the special unit that works on high-profile, sensitive cases – called Priority Murder Squad, much like the team on “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”. Each member of the team is an expert in a different field- such as technical aspects, accounting and gang cultures. With their expertise, the team almost works like clockwork.

The series is gaining in steam and each episode is better than the last. It has garnered record numbers of viewers- hitting the 10 million mark, which is the highest of any cable television drama. Because of the personal relationship between all the characters in the show, it’s almost necessary to watch from the pilot episode to get the gist of “The Closer”. Of course, watching practically month’s worth of episodes to get caught up isn’t always feasible, so new viewers can catch up at the official “The Closer” website, where synopsis of all the episodes are posted online. The show is a must see simply because of the unique way the stories work themselves out. Though it has some elements that can be seen on more seasoned shows, there are still enough twists to keep even skeptical viewers like me coming back.